BABÀ NAPOLETANO - IMPASTO DA SOGNO CON SBATTITORE

Hello everyone, today's introduction must be necessarily very short because the video will be quite long and articulated for the preparation of this special babà with the help of our fantastic mixer. The choice of ingredients will be fundamental for the success of this recipe so now a good part of the introduction will be dedicated to how to choose the various ingredients in the best possible way. Only three small and fundamental recommendations and then we start flying. Number 1, choice of flour, a high quality manitoba flour. Number 2, cold eggs from the fridge, they really have to be very cold. If we are in summer you can also put the flour in the fridge a little before working. Third recommendation, use a mixer that has a power of at least 400-500 watts otherwise it could seriously suffer and also break. Ok, are you ready for this amazing and a little crazy preparation? Let's go! So let's see the ingredients. Let's start with the flour, it is essential that it is a manitoba flour. I'm using 500 grams. I'm using this manitoba flour that I know is easily found in many supermarkets so magical flours. This flour in particular has 15 grams of proteins. Here they are. So it must be a manitoba flour that has at least 14-15 grams of proteins. It is important because this dough is very hydrated and very full of fats between eggs and other things. Another fundamental ingredient, the eggs. Here are 9 medium eggs. I advise you to peel them and weigh them. So in this case these 9 medium eggs weigh about 510 grams. So more or less it must be the same weight between flour and eggs. With a little caution. If we find a flour that really has a good content of proteins, like this one, 15 grams of proteins, we can push ourselves to the same weight of the flour. If instead you find a flour that has a protein content a little lower, then go down a little with the eggs. Maybe, if they are 500 grams of flour, we will be on 490 grams, 480 grams of eggs. A little less. The eggs will be beaten, also to insert them in our recipe. Once beaten, so they have been well mixed, because the mixture is uniform between red and white, at that point we will adjust the weight. So if we have to remove something, we will remove it after we have beaten it. The eggs, very important, must be cold in the refrigerator. This is very important and I will repeat it several times during the work. Cold eggs in the refrigerator. Perfect. 150 grams of butter, it must not be melted, but it must be softened. I, for example, pass it for 30-40 seconds in the microwave at minimum power. 50 grams of sugar. 10 grams of salt. 20 grams of milk, which is practically a little more than a spoon, but we will simply need it to melt this nice cube of yeast, which in this dimension I have not seen for a long time. I advise you to weigh the milk, it really must be 20 grams. Be careful not to put too much at eye, because, as I said, this recipe is already very full of liquids and fats, so if we exaggerate with the milk, we will find another liquid in more, which will complicate the work even more. Perfect. The first thing I'm going to do is divide the eggs, because these are the totality of the eggs in the recipe. But in this first phase of the dough we will need about half, and it is important to weigh them. So in my case it will be about 250 grams. Ok, almost 260, but I remind you that my eggs are 510 grams. Ok, now it is very important, these eggs that we do not use now, that we will need for the second work, go to the refrigerator, because later they will have to be very cold, because we will work with the mixer. So I put them in the fridge and ready. For this work I will use both a fork and a pot lid, or even a spoon. First thing to do, this time I do not melt the yeast in the water as if it were a soap, but I grate the yeast in a bowl and go to pour the 20 grams of milk. And with the help of a teaspoon I melt the yeast as best as possible. It will be quite simple. In the end a cake will come out, a cream. Ok, I create a hole in the center of the flour, a kind of fountain, and I go to pour, first of all, my melted yeast with milk and sugar. And I start to mix simply to make sure that the sugar melts well. Once the sugar has melted, I add half of the eggs that I selected for this first part. And I start to mix a little. I'm not going to call the flour, but it will fall a little at a time simply mixing. At this point I start to add the softened butter. First a half, making it into small pieces, and I start to beat with the fork. To try to crumble the butter, it will be very simple. There is no need for it to melt completely. The important thing is that it becomes small pieces. Here, that's enough. So I keep adding the second half. And I continue to mix and break up. I put the other half of the eggs. I mix a little more. At this point I go to the spoon and start to take the flour. I didn't forget the salt, but I didn't put it on purpose. We will put it in the second phase of the work. At this point I mix everything. Initially we will get a mixture that will remind us of a pastry, something similar to that. With the difference that now we have to make this mixture harden. Here we are, at this point we go to the hands. First inside the bowl. Collecting well all the residues of flour and dough. After that we must necessarily move on a floor. Now in the very first moments of work, the dough will be slightly sticky. But as soon as it takes a minimum of rope, it will detach on its own. I put it on wood and not on marble, to show you that even if it sticks a little at the beginning, working it, taking rope and force, it will detach. The fundamental rule is that we must be fast. Remember, sticky doughs, we have to touch them as if they were hot. You just have to be patient for the first minute. Here, the dough is already starting to gain strength and detaches on its own. So it really lasted a few moments. Now we go on to work it for about a couple of minutes. With your fingers, making this movement. Rolling the dough on itself and imprinting energy. Finished on one side, wheel of 90 degrees and work on the other side. So we work it, both to develop gluten network and at the same time we are mixing the butter and other ingredients well. Worked for a couple of minutes, we put it to rest in the same bowl we used for the dough. I cover it with a plate and put it to rest in the refrigerator. I recommend, very important, for 20-30 minutes. It will have to be cold later to work it with the mixer. So in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. See you later. Ok, half an hour of rest has passed. The dough is a little cold. And we prepare the fun part with our mega mixer. The rest of the eggs to be added, which have been in the refrigerator. The salt. And I advise you to do all the work in a container that is narrow and has high edges. So I take my dough ball, which has rested, and I put it in this container. Perfect. Let's be very patient and start. Lower speed and go. I immediately add a little egg. It really has to be a little at a time. Lower speed. Ok, roughly absorbed the first part of the egg. I continue. As soon as I see that the egg has disappeared from the bottom, I add the other. Ok, I continue again with a little egg. Here, the mixer is a fantastic tool. But as I have said several times, it is not a real mixer. So it is not able to go and recover the dough on its own. This means that we have to move while we use it. Do not stay still at one point. Try to take all the parts of the dough and try to rotate the dough on itself. So going to move inside the dough. Before the last part of the egg is finished, I add the salt. With a drop of egg, always without exaggerating, a little at a time. And I go to work. In this way, the salt will be absorbed. In the meantime, we continue the work. And then I will go on to add the very last part of the egg. As you can see, I always move inside. Ok, the eggs are almost fully incorporated. Now I want to continue the work just to make them harden a little more. And now I'll show you why it's important that the eggs are cold. Before continuing, I test the temperature. We are at 22 degrees. So it's fine. Up to 24-25 degrees, we don't have big problems. But if we hadn't used cold eggs with all this work, by now we would have reached much higher temperatures. So I continue for another minute to finish stringing the mixture well. Only in this last part of the work I go on at a higher speed, almost at maximum. You see that it begins to string. It is understood because it creates these small filaments on the sides of the dough. So it's really taking on its consistency. Ok, I slightly grease the floor with this sweetener spray. I also grease my hands. And I'm going to roll out the dough now. I widen it slightly. You see how well it is stringed with the rolling pin. Ok, but I'm going to close it. Not too much because we can just make a few folds. Here, it's finished. I always collect any residues and put them under the dough. I always prepare a container with a little bit of stringing spray. I make some folds. Beautiful. Also a lot of satisfaction. And I put it in the container. And I let it rise at room temperature. So I leave it like this, in the bowl, at room temperature, for about an hour, an hour and a half. In the summer, also 45 minutes. See you later. After the time of the episode, the dough will be doubled. Here, don't make the same mistake I made. I put it in a too small container. In fact, without calculating the doubling. In the meantime, I always prepared with a little bit of stringing spray, a 26 cm diameter wheel, plus 4 100 g molds. If you want, you can also opt for a bigger diameter wheel, but 32 cm. I used the stringing spray. Of course, you can easily use butter. Ok, I turn the dough upside down on the floor. Look how wonderful it is now. Thanks to the rising, the gluten mesh has been further structured. And now it has a really particular consistency, but it will also be easier to handle. I cut it, I do it this way. I'm going to crush, to crumble a piece of dough. And I make some folds on the counter, 2 or 3, just to give a minimum of pearling, which we cannot do in any other way, except by making folds. Or with the wonderful gesture that pastry chefs know how to do, but it is difficult. I'll try it later, when I put them in the mold. So I create pieces that I put in the mold. Now, the advice is to fill the mold for a third of its volume, at most half of its volume. I exaggerated a bit, because I wanted, let's say, a nice puffed babà, and I made half the volume. If I went back, I would do a third. So I advise you to do a third, because it really becomes very, very high. If you really like it very puffed, you can also do half. Know that it will be more difficult to let the batter penetrate inside a very puffed babà. And now I go to the molds. I always give a minimum of folds on the counter, then I take the dough between my hands, as if I had a poche bag between my hands, and, by rubbing, I drop a ball inside the mold, which also in this case must be a third of the volume of the mold, at most half. Same thing, so a minimum of folds to be facilitated in taking it, then I move it, and the mold comes. Here they are. They are beautiful, small molds. Now, I already place them on the baking sheet, later I will bake them like this, and now they have to do another leavening, they have to double. It will take about an hour and a half at room temperature, obviously in the summer a little less. Here they are, well doubled, puffed, ready to go in the oven. Oven preheated to 180 degrees, static. I place them in the middle-low part, to tell the truth, the first low shelf. I close, and it will take about 25-35 minutes. Look how they puff, they are fantastic. And as I told you, the big one behind, it really exploded, it came very light, but it really puffed a lot. Obviously, the smaller babas, those in the mold, will be ready a little earlier, it will take about 25 minutes. The bigger one will need to stay a little longer, 30-35 minutes at most. Look here how wonderful it has become. Ok, at this point, while they cool down a little, we will let them cool down at least an hour, we prepare the batter. With a liter of water, 500 grams of sugar, the amount of sugar must be a little customized according to taste. Let's say that a liter of water, 500 grams of sugar, is quite sweet, and at least 250 ml of rum. This also goes according to taste. If you like it stronger, it will reach 300-350 ml, if you don't like the taste of rum, it will go down to 200 ml, but I don't recommend less than 200-250 ml, because the taste of rum will be less present. It is not necessary to bring the batter to a boil, but it is essential to bring it to at least 60 degrees, because when we are going to bathe the babas, it will have to stay between 50-60 degrees, otherwise it will struggle to penetrate inside. So not cold, not boiling, but 50-60 degrees. I put the smaller babas directly to soak in the punch of this bath, and I just drown them. You see that they make the bubbles because they drink. As long as they make the bubbles, it means that they need to bathe. I take them out, and this is also a bit of a proof of 9, that the dough was done well, that is, squeeze them without destroying themselves. This means that the dough has developed a good and strong gluten network, and is able to absorb the bath without disintegrating. Look, I squeeze it right between my hands, and it's like a sponge. They resist very well. I go on to bathe the others, I remove the excess by squeezing a little, and here too it is according to taste. There are those who like very wet babas, and there are those who like a little drier. In Naples there is also a saying about babas and rum, but I can't repeat it because it's a bit vulgar, but the Neapolitans will have already understood. Ok, let's move on to bathe the bigger one, which is certainly more problematic, because we can't immerse it, we don't have such a big tub, nor all this bath. So I prepared a much larger pot, with a grating on top, on which I put the big baba, and I'm going to bathe it this way, with a ladle. Now, of course, the baba will not drink the bath all at once, the first time, so we have to recover the part that flows, and repeat this operation 2-3 times, until the baba has reached the degree of sponginess that satisfies us. A good test is also to squeeze it a little to feel under the hands how much is soaked and how much is not. I also recommend you to turn it and also soak it from the bottom, which is actually the most difficult part to get into the bath, because it is the one that has created a little more crust, because it was the exposed part, while it was black. And so I go on to bathe it, turning it several times, and when I use the bath that I have recovered on the bottom, if this is too cold, it is advisable to put it back on the stove and bring it around 50-60 degrees, which is the ideal temperature, which allows me to make the bath penetrate well even in the center of this baba, so consistent, because on the outside it is bathed more easily, but inside it will make a little more effort. So in the end it will have to be absorbed almost all the bath. And here we are, in the end I have garnished this baba in a bit of a goofy way, in the center I put some custard cream with amarena, which I like very much, I may have exaggerated a little with the cream around, and I put a little gelatine on the surface of all the babas, smaller and larger. This is the way to make it a little more shiny, it's just an aesthetic question, so if you want to make it very shiny, you will need this gelatine, otherwise you can eat it even without it. I cut these smaller ones, because I will have to keep the bigger one for a friend, for his birthday, and let's see inside how the structure is. They are really very soft, and you see that the dough is really very light. Really beautiful. I cut another one, here it is, they really melt in your mouth. Well, it's a long preparation, but it can give great satisfaction, especially if you are a lover of this fantastic dessert of the Neapolitan tradition. Ciao and see you in the next video!